Golden light shimmered off the ancient stone, illuminating the sacred platform within the deepest depths of the Liu Clan's ancestral cave. Runes drifted gently through the air like glowing motes, circling around a young man seated in silent meditation.
Suddenly, his eyes opened.
Golden irises. Cold yet calm. As if the world had shifted beneath them.
"...So, I died reading a novel, and now I wake up in a cultivation world?" The youth muttered.
He blinked slowly, then looked down at his hands. They were lean, veined with power, faint traces of immortal qi flowing through his meridians like silver streams. The weight of unfamiliar memories pressed against his mind, yet he welcomed them.
"I am Liu Chen...the only son of the Liu Clan leader," he whispered.
A pause.
"And yet...I'm also Liu Chen from Earth."
He pressed his palm against his chest and closed his eyes again. Emotions churned beneath his calm face—confusion, awe, a tinge of excitement.
It had happened while reading the climax of a web novel—one of those overly dramatic cultivation stories. He'd scoffed at the protagonist's dumb luck, only to feel a sharp pain in his chest. Then darkness. And now... this.
He was no longer the overworked, coffee-fueled student who had lived a boring life.
This Liu Chen had just awakened his God and Demon Body, a legendary physique feared and worshipped in the Immortal World. But the process of awakening had killed his soul. In that moment of vacancy, his own soul—foreign, unknown, human—had entered and fused with it.
Now, they were one. Not two Liu Chens. Just him.
---
The cave was massive, layered in formation arrays that pulsed faintly with power. Carved from golden divine stone, this was the Sacred Dao Cave, a place forbidden to all except clan ancestors and the Patriarch. Yet, his father—the current leader—had risked everything to bring him here. Even argued with the ancient guardians of the clan.
Liu Chen looked around in silent awe. In the center of the cave, beneath a floating celestial stone inscribed with flowing calligraphy, sat the golden platform where he now rested. A faint breeze moved through the sealed chamber, though there were no openings. It carried the scent of aged incense and divine metal.
"So...this is where it begins," Liu Chen murmured.
His cultivation had already surged to the Soul Foundation Realm—a level that most twenty-one-year-olds couldn't dream of. The surge came not just from the physique awakening, but also... something else.
He reached inward, into his soul sea.
Most cultivators' soul seas were vast but pale, filled with misty spirit energy. But his—
Golden-black waves lapped against the shore of a limitless expanse. In its center floated his soul form, but it was no longer the vague humanoid light of a typical cultivator.
It was a golden-black figure, radiant with divine brilliance and demonic shadow. Around its core, Dao patterns flickered—complex symbols that shimmered like celestial circuits. Some glowed like the stars, others flickered like flames, and some were so profound they hurt to look at.
And over it all, faintly etched into the heavens of his soul sea—a single Heavenly Dao Pattern.
"This... isn't normal." Liu Chen furrowed his brow. "This isn't just the God and Demon Body…"
It was more.
When he focused, he could feel it. The rhythm of the heavens. The subtle flow of fate. The breathing of the world. He could sense qi drifting beyond the stone walls, the tug of spiritual veins running beneath the earth, the gentle vibration of dao laws in the air.
It was as if he had become attuned to the very essence of the world.
He had no system, no cheat... not the way those novels described them.
But his soul was now blessed by Heaven.
A "golden finger" of sorts—though its power and purpose were still unclear. What he did know was that it gave him a sense of harmony with the laws of existence. Perhaps it was fate. Perhaps it was coincidence. But one thing was certain:
He wasn't a side character in someone else's story.
Not anymore.
---
Back in the physical realm, Liu Chen exhaled slowly. Golden qi left his nostrils in fine, glowing threads. He opened his eyes, sharper now—more aware.
A light hum echoed around him. The formation arrays in the cave, long dormant, responded to his awakening. Symbols along the walls lit up, lines of ancient runes pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.
It was subtle, but the Sacred Dao Cave was reacting to him.
The ancient will slumbering in the stone acknowledged him as someone worthy.
He stood. His body felt light, but brimming with strength. He clenched his fists, and sparks of divine light crackled from his fingertips.
He remembered from Liu Chen's memories: this physique—the God and Demon Body—was one of the Three Supreme Physiques of the Immortal World. It granted both the destruction of demons and the creation of divinity. A body that could walk both paths, choosing neither, or mastering both.
But no one had ever fully awakened it before.
Until now.
---
Suddenly, the golden runes stopped glowing.
Liu Chen turned his head. The sealed entrance to the Sacred Dao Cave rumbled as formations flickered and parted. A figure stepped through the mist.
An old man in dark robes, eyes glowing faintly with silver qi, stared at him with narrowed eyes. Behind him stood a middle-aged man with stern eyes and a familiar presence.
"Chen'er!" The middle-aged man stepped forward, concern and pride both etched on his face.
"Father," Liu Chen said with a calm smile. "I'm fine. More than fine."
The old man, clearly an ancestor-level expert, remained silent as he studied Liu Chen. His gaze passed through flesh and qi, lingering on the faint Dao patterns surrounding his body.
"The physique has fully awakened," the elder said slowly. "And yet... there is something more. His soul has changed. It is no longer bound by mortal limitations."
Liu Tianlei, the clan leader, didn't speak. But his knuckles were white from how hard he was gripping his sleeves.
He had risked everything to awaken his son here—arguing against tradition, challenging the rules set down by ancestors. Many thought Liu Chen a waste, a disappointment. But Tianlei had seen it—the potential, the flame.
And now that flame had become a sun.
The old ancestor turned to Tianlei and nodded once.
"Perhaps… we were too cautious. The heavens have chosen."
He turned back to Liu Chen. "From this day forward, your fate is no longer tied to the Liu Clan alone. You must forge your own Dao. Walk carefully, boy."
Then, with a flick of his sleeve, the ancestor disappeared into the void.
---
Liu Chen stepped forward beside his father, gazing up at the sky outside the cave for the first time since awakening.
The sky was endless. Vast. Waiting.
"This world…"
he whispered, "will know my name."
From now on, he would no longer be the reader of stories.
He would become the legend.